Last week, John King of CNN was covering the Gulf oil spill in front of what must have been 16 different live camera feeds of BP trying to get the spill capped. Amid all the discussions about the impact of the Gulf oil spill in deteriorating the BP brand, this scene suggested another question to consider:

Is your brand ready to have 16 cameras covering your service recovery efforts?

That’s another scary thought from this whole fiasco that other companies need to be considering and planning for as a possibility. Because even if it isn’t 16 cameras, it’s very likely your lowest paid front line employee is on camera (or being tweeted about) as he or she is (hopefully) trying to satisfy a pissed off customer. And if the video isn’t available in real-time, then it’s probably going to be posted online shortly after the service recovery takes place.

So again, ask yourself: Does your organization have a service recovery strategy that’s prepared to be shown to the world? – Mike Brown